#169 Bertrand Sinclair

After the death of Bertrand Sinclair–easily one of the greatest B.C. writers that most people have never heard of–his ashes were spread here, at Squitty Bay. That’s because Sinclair’s Hardy-esque romance Poor Man’s Rock (1920) is named for a place off Lasqueti Island, at Squitty Bay, where dense kelp and swirling currents prevented motorized fishing boats from approaching, restricting fishing to hand trollers. “Only a poor man trolled in a rowboat,” Sinclair wrote, “…Poor Man’s Rock had given many a man a chance.” The romance angle of this novel is secondary to Sinclair’s superb depiction of how cannery operators—the B.C. Packers Association—were unfairly controlling prices with price-fixing agreements, leading to poor working conditions. Jack MacRae, the hero, realizes how the Packers Association discourages competition by monopolizing cannery sites and licences. He concludes “the wholesaler stood like a wall between the fishermen and those who ate fish.” By offering fair prices to independent fishermen, MacRae scuttles his rival Horace Gower’s control. When the hero ultimately marries Gower’s daughter, Betty, the capitalist father-in-law confesses to MacRae that wealth never made him a happy man.

QUICK ENTRY:

Bertrand “Bill” Sinclair was one of the most successful and admirable novelists in B.C. history. A cowboy, logger, fisherman, social activist, broadcaster and unionist poet, he wrote 15 novels, several of which became silent movies such as North of ‘53 (1914) and Big Timber (1916). His main attempt at a ‘literary’ novel, The Inverted Pyramid (1924) was inspired by the failure of the Dominion Trust Company. North of ‘53 reputedly sold 340,000 copies but Sinclair considered Poor Man’s Rock (1920), in which the hero is concerned about declining salmon stocks, as his most successful work. According to critic and friend Lester Peterson, Sinclair showed a “general disgust for the mere entrepreneur, the man who manipulates but does not actually produce goods or services.”

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1881, Sinclair immigrated to Canada with his mother in 1889, then ran away from home to become a cowboy in Montana at age 15. In 1905, he married novelist Bertha M. (Muzzy) Bower, who wrote more than 60 Westerns under her first husband’s surname, Bower. The protagonist of her best-known work, Chip of the Flying U, was based on Sinclair. Dismayed by phoney depictions of cowboys in romance novels, Sinclair turned his hand to fiction after he moved to San Francisco, starting with Raw Gold (1908) and The Land of the Frozen Suns (1909). After divorcing his first wife, Sinclair married her cousin Ruth and returned to Canada. In British Columbia he began to adapt his melodramatic, heroic stories to realistically depict the lives of loggers, fishermen and ranchers. Prior to writing Big Timber: A Story of the Northwest (1916), Sinclair observed logging operations at Harrison Lake for three years. For Down the Dark Alley (1936), which describes so-called rum-running during Prohibition, Sinclair accompanied a liquor shipment to the U.S.

Bertrand Sinclair was also widely known for his VHF radio broadcasts to fishermen, ‘The Sinclair Hour’ and his beloved 37-foot troller Hoo Hoo which was moored at Pender Harbour, where he first bought property in 1923. He didn’t retire from fishing until age 83. After Sinclair died at age 91, in 1972, his ashes were scattered over Poor Man’s Rock off Lasqueti Island. The Hoo Hoo was burned for an episode of The Beachcombers in 1985. Betty Keller’s biography is Pender Harbour Cowboy: The Many Lives of Bertrand Sinclair (2000).

Bertrand Sinclair

FULL ENTRY:

Of the great B.C. writers most people have never heard of, Bertrand W. “Bill” Sinclair was possibly the most successful. A cowboy, logger, fisherman, social activist, broadcaster and unionist poet, he wrote 15 novels, numerous of which became silent movies [see below] such as Big Timber (1917) and North of ‘53 (1917), and he was widely known for his radio broadcasts to fishermen. Sinclair moored his beloved 37-foot troller Hoo Hoo at Pender Harbour, the community with which he was associated for 60 years, before the Hoo Hoo was burned for an episode of The Beachcombers in 1985. The Hoo Hoo was built in 1911 and purchased by Sinclair eight years later.

Bertrand Sinclair was born as William Brown Sinclair in Edinburgh, Scotland on January 9, 1881. After immigrating to Regina with his mother in 1889, he lived in Alberta’s Peace River country and Saskatchewan’s Qu’Appelle Valley during his early teenage years. He ran away from home to become a cowboy in Montana at age 15. In 1905, he married novelist Bertha M. (Muzzy) Bower, who wrote more than 60 Westerns under her first husband’s surname, Bower. The protagonist of her best-known work, Chip of the Flying U, was based on Sinclair. Dismayed by the phoney depictions of cowboys he found in romance novels, Sinclair turned his hand to fiction after he moved to San Francisco. His early, Jack London-influenced Westerns included Raw Gold (1908) and The Land of the Frozen Suns (1909). From 1907 to 1911 Sinclair and his wife lived mostly in California, raising one daughter. Contrary to some reports, he was not a cousin of one of America’s most progressive and successful authors, Upton Sinclair, but Bertrand Sinclair did admire Upton Sinclair’s work. Divorcing his first wife, Sinclair married her cousin Ruth and returned to Canada.

By early 1912, Bertrand Sinclair had settled in an apartment in Vancouver, first at the Englesea then later at the Sylvia Court, and bought property at Pender Harbour in 1923. They had one daughter. In British Columbia he began to adapt his melodramatic, heroic stories to depict the lives of loggers, fishermen and ranchers. After publishing his extremely popular novel critical of urban industrialism, North of ‘53, in 1914, reputedly selling 340,000 copies—-like Martin Allerdale Grainger before him, and like Roderick Haig-Brown and Peter Trower after him—-Sinclair became interested in writing about logging. He observed logging operations for three years at Harrison Lake before writing Big Timber: A Story of the Northwest (1916). Increasingly popular, Sinclair had four editions of his next novel, Burned Bridges (1919), published in as many months.

Bertrand Sinclair’s most famous novel, Poor Man’s Rock (1920), was written after Sinclair did some research as a commercial fisherman. A Hardy-esque romance about family pride and corporate exploitation in the fishing industry, it reputedly sold 80,000 copies. The story concerns a recently-returned World One vet, Jack MacRae, who returns to the West Coast. Before his father dies, he learns that his father had eloped with his sweetheart, Bessie, only to be overtaken at sea by her father, her grandfather and a monied suitor named Horace Gower. Sworn to pacifism by his beloved, MacRae Sr. had been knocked unconscious by Gower’s attack with a pike pole. He drifted and was shipwrecked on Squitty Island (Lasqueti Island). Gower married Bessie and for the next 30 years his wealthy clan waged a silent, economic war on the unlucky MacRae Sr., slowly divesting him of his property due to the Gowers’ clout in the Packers Association. MacRae Jr. vows to appease his disinheritance, repurchase family property and “take a fall out of Horace Gower that would jar the bones of his ancestors.” Jack, the hero, realizes how the Packers Association discourages competition by monopolizing cannery sites and licences. He concludes “the wholesaler stood like a wall between the fishermen and those who ate fish.” By offering fair prices to independent fishermen, MacRae scuttles Gower’s control and ultimately marries Gower’s daughter, Betty, with the blessings of her father. The capitalist father-in-law confesses to MacRae Jr. that wealth never made him a happy man. The title Poor Man’s Rock is drawn from a real place, a rock off Lasqueti Island. Dense kelp and swirling currents around its base prevented large, motorized fishing boats from approaching, restricting fishing there to hand trollers. “Only a poor man trolled in a rowboat,” Sinclair wrote, “…Poor Man’s Rock had given many a man a chance.”

Striving for increased social relevance, Sinclair examined the aftermath of World War I with Hidden Places (1922), a poignant romance about a facially-mutilated and emotionally shattered veteran and a blind woman named Doris Cleveland who establish a home up Toba Inlet. Even more political, The Inverted Pyramid (1924) was inspired by the failure of the Dominion Trust Company. It was followed by Wild West (1926), Pirates of the Plains (1928) and Gunpowder Lightning (1930). In Down the Dark Alley (1936) he described rumrunning during Prohibition. Throughout most of his later work, according to critic and friend Lester Peterson, Sinclair showed a “general disgust for the mere entrepreneur, the man who manipulates but does not actually produce goods or services… Monetary gain must not, in the Sinclair philosophy, be derived by means which destroy beauty or create waste—a creed which led Sinclair to oppose what he recognized, earlier than most, was senseless despoliation of natural resources.” From 1932 onwards, Sinclair chiefly depended on commercial fishing. He wrote short stories and novelettes during the winters until 1940. Although he produced 15 novels, as well as dozens of novelettes and short stories in magazines such as Popular Magazine, Adventure and Short Stories, after 1940 he mostly contributed poems to the Fisherman newspaper and made popular VHF broadcasts to other fishermen on a program called The Sinclair Hour. In the 1950s he began writing again, publishing westerns called Both Sides of the Law (1951), Room for the Rolling M (1954) and The Man Who Rode By Himself (1958).

Bertrand Sinclair is sometimes associated with a ballad, “Banks Trollers”, the unofficial anthem of West Coast commercial fishermen, that was adapted and sung by folklorist and musician Phil Thomas. Sinclair didn’t retire from fishing until age 83; he died at age 91 in 1972 in Pender Harbour. His ashes were scattered over Poor Man’s Rock off Lasqueti Island, the setting for his most important novel. After more than 15 years of on-again, off-again research, Betty Keller of Sechelt published her biography, Pender Harbour Cowboy: The Many Lives of Bertrand Sinclair (Touchwood $18.95). In England, Richard J. Lane has published Literature & Loss: Bertrand William Sinclair’s British Columbia (The London Network for Modern Fiction Studies, 2000). Bertrand Sinclair’s granddaughter Jane Maloughney [née Whitaker] has continued the family literary tradition by operating Mostly Books in Squamish. Manuscripts and literary material related to Sinclair’s career was donated to Special Collections at the University of British Columbia by Betty Purves, his third partner. There is a public email forum on the life and literature of Bertrand Sinclair: for info, send an e-mail to bertrand_sinclair-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

The Cherry Pickets, 1914. According to Ted Rowcliffe, The Cherry Pickers was produced by Colin Campbell, producer of most of the Sinclair-based films from Selig Polyscope. It was released 13 April 1914. Based on a play of the same name that was written by Joseph Arthur and staged in 1896, it was a popular melodrama set during the Anglo-Afghan War. It concerns the rivalry between two officers for a young woman’s hand. Under Arthur’s name in the credits is listed “Bertrand W. Sinclair-scenario”. The cast included Wheeler Oakman, Gordon Sackville, Frank Clark, Jack MacDonald, William Elmer, Al W. Filson and Art Accord.

1917

Big Timber – 1917 – purchased by Fox who merged with Bosworth Films, presented by Paramount – directed by William Desmond Taylor (one of the biggest names in Hollywood) – Wallace Reid (one of the biggest names in Hollywood) as Jack Fife , Kathlyn Williams as Stella Benton, Alfred Paget as Charlie Benton, John Burton, Joe King as Walter Monohan, Helen Bray as Linda Abbey, Florence Vidor – It played at the Rex theatre in Vancouver August 23-25, 1917 – released July 14, 1917. AFI Silent Films says: “Because she has lost both her voice and her wealth after the death of her father, Stella Benton goes to live with her brother Charles at his lumber camp. Struggling to make a living, Charles appoints his sister to cook for the hundred lumberjacks in the camp. Woefully overworked, Stella accepts the marriage proposal of neighboring lumberman Jack Fyfe, even though she does not love him. A child is born out of the loveless marriage and the couple is reasonably happy until Walter Monahan, a wealthy lumberman, begins to court Stella. After the death of her child, Stella leaves Fyfe and returns to the stage as a concert singer. Meanwhile, Monahan, jealous of Fyfe’s success, sets fire to his holdings. Hearing of her husband’s misfortune, Stella immediately returns to the lumber camp where she offers Fyfe her own money to rebuild his losses. As the couple embrace, it begins to rain and Fyfe’s holdings, as well as his marriage, are saved.

1917

North of 53 – 1917 – Fox 5 reel – 60 minutes – directed by Richard Stanton and William Desmond Taylor. Dustin Farnum as Roarin’ Bill Wagstaff, Winnifred Kingston as Hazel Weir, William Conklin as Andrew Bush, Rex Downs as Joe Brooks, Frank Lanning as Nig Giroux, Edward Alexander, Jack Nelson – Writing credits – Gardner Hunting, Bertrand Sinclair (story). American Film Index 1916-1920 states it was released Oct 6, 1917 while AFI says 23 Sept 1917. A Guide to the Silent Westerns notes “Dustin Farnum as a prospector avenges his partner’s murder and finds love in the snow country in this northwest drama. Winifred Kingston, who appeared as the female lead in numerous silent films, provides the romantic interest.” AFI Silent Films says “Roaring” Bill Wagstaff’s troubles begin when he finds his partner, Joe Brooks, murdered in the snow. A ray of sunshine enters his life soon after though, with the arrival of Hazel Weir who has come West to teach, but finds herself lost in the woods outside the town of Cariboo Meadows. Bill discovers her and under the guise of leading her to town, takes her to his cabin where he declares his love. Hazel, who is smarting from unfair accusations of scandal, rejects Bill’s offer and leaves for Cariboo Meadows. Later, Bill learns of Hazel’s problems and rushes to town to confirm his faith in her. En route, he stops at a saloon where he sees his dead partner’s snowshoes leaning against a wall. At the point of a gun, he extracts the name of Joe’s killer from the saloon keeper and then sets out after the man, Nig Geroux. After avenging his partner’s death, Bill finds Hazel, who finally accepts his love.

1921

The Raiders – Canyon Pictures Corporation-based on the story The Whiskey Runners – 1921. Directed by Nate Watt; Franklyn Farnum as Pvt. Fitzgerald RCMP, Bud Osborne as Pvt Herrick, Vester Pegg as Bob Thiele and Clair Windsor as `Honey’ Moore. Also Frederick Soultas as `Big’ Moore, H. Abbott as Oscar Nelson, J.K. Van Buren as Dave Moore, John Hatfield (III)as Hank Nelson, Luella Maxim. Writing credits Bertrand W. Sinclair (story), William Wing.(A Guide to the Silent Westerns notes that Canyon only made westerns and only in 1921 pxxii). AFI Silents Fims says it was released in May 1921 and says, “Northwest Mounted Policemen Fitzgerald and Herrick, who are later joined by Indian guide Uncas, have been detailed to track down a gang of whisky-runners. They stop at a farm operated by “Big” Moore; and there Fitzgerald attracts Moore’s daughter, “Honey,” who has grown distrustful of her childhood sweetheart, Bob Thiele. The Mounties track the smugglers to their lair and rout them; but afterwards, Herrick is killed by a mysterious shot aimed at Fitzgerald. Uncas investigates and finds a clue pointing to Honey’s brother Dave. Thiele, however, is revealed as the true murderer and the leader of the smugglers. Thiele defeats Fitzgerald in a fight and is about to shoot him when he is struck dead by lightning. Fitzgerald reports back to headquarters but returns to claim Honey as his bride.

In several of the above instances, the story line has been changed substantially from the written word to the film.

Anananias and The Sapphires
Answer To Prayer
Before Strange Gods
Beyond Gods Country
Blow The Cat Down
The Boomerang
The Bridesmaid
Blueback Bill
Fed To The Wolves
A Ghost That Walked
Hands Off!
Lost Dice
Nobody wins
The Tale of a Whale
The Big Mistake
Bigger’N Bigger
Confusion to the Enemy
The Finger of Suspicion
(Including Chapter XI The Clean Up)
Frozen Face
Out of the Blue

Stories Referred to in Correspondence

The City of Numbered Days
The Red Streak
All The King’s Horses
Room for the Rolling M.
North of Fifty-Three (as it appeared in North West Farmstead)
The Way of the North
Burned Bridges
The Hidden Places
The Inverted Pyramid
The Whiskey Runners
The Roaring Hole
The Dollar Mark Brand
Confusion to the Enemy
The Tale of Ten Thousand Doggies
Troubled Waters
The Stetson Hat In Literature by F. Romer (BWS contributed to)
Come Around Friday
Bertram (sic) Sinclair: The Man and His Book – published by Little Brown and Co. (pamphlet)
The Land of the Frozen Suns
One Black Eye Deserves Another
Raw Gold
Big Timber
Wild West
Over The Border
Longhorn and Shorthorn

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